Bucks star Parker is healthy again

ST. FRANCIS – The scar on Jabari Parker’s left knee could serve as a daily reminder of how quickly basketball can be taken away.

The Milwaukee Bucks' second-year forward was in the beginning stages of a strong rookie campaign last year – he earned Eastern Conference rookie of the month honors for October/November – when he sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the third quarter of a win over the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 15.

The 6-foot-8 Parker, who was the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, averaged 12.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.24 steals while shooting 49 percent overall in 25 games. He also became the first teenager in 30 years to record multiple double-doubles in his first three career games.

Then it was over.

He had surgery in January and was forced to watch from the sideline as the Bucks made it to the playoffs and finished .500 or better for just the second time in 11 seasons.

Parker was a full participant when the Bucks opened training camp in Madison on Tuesday. He joked during the team’s media day that the medical staff probably passed him on his physical by noting he was both enthusiastic and hyper.

Still, there were challenges in returning to this point. There always are when it comes to an ACL rebab.

But the comeback process wasn’t nearly as grueling as it could have been, simply because Parker refused to let it be these past nine months. He even found time to take a trip to Peru this summer to hike its steep mountains and test himself.

“I kind of tricked myself, my mindset,” he said. “When people look at it pessimistically, they think of it with the wrong mentality. You are probably going to be a different person, and it’s traumatizing. For myself, I really didn’t treat it that way. I wanted to look at it as positive as possible, saying that I was going to be able to start back over and build myself up.

“There was no better way that I could do to rebuild myself up. That was real fun.”

Parker has added noticeable muscle to his upper body while working with strength and conditioning coach Suki Hobson in the offseason, which he feels will help him hold his ground against stronger players this season at the power forward spot.

“It was something that I wanted to do, rebuild my body from scratch,” Parker said. “Don’t have any flaws.”

The Bucks likely will take it slow with Parker early on, but he figures to play a big part in a year that starts with such high expectations after last season’s 26-win improvement from 2013-14.

He will have a few new faces to get used to in the starting lineup when the time comes. The Bucks traded for point guard Michael Carter-Williams two months after Parker’s injury and signed center Greg Monroe in the offseason.

The question now is, did Parker get enough time last season that he was able to develop properly, or will this almost be a second rookie year for him?

Nobody really knows.

“I think it could be a little bit of both for him,” Bucks general manager John Hammond said. “He still is going to have to figure some things out, probably from a feel of the game standpoint. Obviously, timing is a factor as he gets back on the floor.

“I don’t know. Does that happen? Does that all come back together, and you say, ‘OK, he no longer is a rookie.’ At what point in the season is it? 25 games in? 50 games in? At a certain point I assume it can happen, it’s just a matter of when.”